Vanilla Black's gipsy toast with refried beans, tomatoes and home-made brown sauce. The restaurant is one of only two Michelin-recommended vegetarian establishments in Britain. Photograph: Gary Calton

Vegetarian food was never really synonymous with fine dining, but today a new generation of sleek, modern restaurants offering meat-free fine food is banishing the sector's former reputation.

The number of high-end vegetarian eateries is rising fast, despite the recession, prompted by culinary innovation by leading chefs, interest in healthy lifestyles and a growing belief that carnivorous cuisine is bad for the environment.

And the majority of the food enthusiasts are the increasing number of meat-eaters who are now consuming less flesh – so-called "meat-reducers" – and not the estimated 5 million Britons who are wholly or partly vegetarian.

There are now 30 top-range vegetarian restaurants, up by 50% since 2007, according to Alex Bourke, founder and compiler of the Vegetarian Guides to meat-free eating in Britain.

"Vegetarian couples do not want a special date marred by the sight of foie gras on the menu nor the aroma of roast lamb wafting from the next table," said Bourke. "And ethical veggies often are not comfortable using plates and cutlery that have been used for meat, or having to witness the next table tucking into roast beef. There are no such problems at gourmet vegetarian restaurants."

He pointed to the opening in the last few weeks in London of Amico Bio, offering Italian vegetarian fare, and a second branch of Saf, founded by "raw chef" Chad Sarno.

Bourke added that top-end vegetarian eateries have also opened in recent years in places such as Bath, Nottingham, Manchester, Woodbridge in Suffolk, Ambleside in the Lake District and several towns in West Yorkshire.

"Mainstream top-end French, British and American restaurants, where everything revolves around meat, cream and butter, offer poor choices for vegetarians and nothing for vegans," he said.

Vanilla Black, which opened in 2008 near Chancery Lane in London, epitomises the trend. It is one of only two Michelin-recommended vegetarian restaurants in Britain, alongside Brighton's long-established Terre à Terre.

"It's very classical, the way we cook," said Vanilla Black's head chef and co-founder Andrew Dargue. "We don't cook for vegetarians, we cook vegetarian food. And we don't market it to vegetarians, we market it so that the concept appeals to everybody."

Between 50% and 60% of its clientele are meat-eaters. Their favourite dishes include poached duck egg and Ribblesdale cheese pudding and baked mushroom duxelle and burgundy sauce.

Dargue said: "Vegetarian restaurants are doing well partly because people are realising that meat-eating is bad for the planet but also because the traditional view of vegetarian food as bland and boring is changing. Fewer people hold that view; they're looking for something different."

In mid-February, Italian chef Aldo Zilli opened his first vegetarian restaurant, Zilli Green, near his existing, eponymous outlets in Soho, central London. Main courses there include spiced plantain on a lemongrass skewer, cauliflower, green bean and almond yellow curry, and marinated seared organic tofu steak.

Gordon Ramsay predicted that Zilli Green would shut within a month, but 10 weeks later it is doing a brisk trade. However, reviews have been mixed.

"Vegetarians are saying the food is bland and disappointing and that the restaurant is cramped," said Debbie Jones, co-founder of the Veggie Places online guide.

Otarian, which says it aims to be Britain's first chain of vegetarian restaurants, will unveil its first two outlets next month in central London, a third later this year and then others across the UK.

Otarian claims to be the first restaurant group to include the carbon footprint of every dish on its menus. For example, it says a small bowl of its roasted tomato soup will involve 1.31kg of carbon, compared with 1.47kg elsewhere, a saving of 0.16kg.

"It's opening three restaurants, so it isn't just a hobbyist, it isn't just opening a scruffy little vegetarian place," said Jones.

"Otarian thinks there's going to be a demand for [its food]."

The trend for gourmet vegetarian restaurants has emerged at the same time as the number of vegetarian cafes, takeaways and restaurants has hit an all-time high, according to industry experts.

When Bourke compiled his first Vegetarian Britain guide in 1998 it featured 270 premises across 250 pages; the imminent fourth edition will detail about 450, plus many more wholefood shops, and will stretch to 800 pages.

Bourke credits the cheaper cost of vegetarian food together with concerns about animal welfare, damage to the environment and potential health effects of meat-eating for the boom.

The London mini-chain Eat & Two Veg has recently ceased trading. But Vegetarian Society members responded to a Guardian request for information about the sector by identifying far more recent openings than closures, in places as far afield as Wigan, Eastbourne, Paignton, Leigh-on-Sea and York.

"The vegetarian food market has been growing for decades," said the society's head of communications, Liz O'Neill. "Although the number of committed vegetarians has remained stable in recent years, the number of meat-reducers has increased enormously.

"Both groups often choose vegetarian meals when eating out, partly because it's the only way to be sure that you're not eating factory-farmed meat and partly because they've realised that good food doesn't have to include a dead animal."